ReportListener Utility and File-handling Foundation Class

The UtilityReportListener class adds run-time configuration options and file handling (filename verification, file writing) to the core services provided by its parent class, _ReportListener. This class also supplies access to an instance of FrxCursor, a class leveraged from the Report Builder Application, with appropriate error handling if it cannot be found.

UtilityReportListener and its Configuration Table

UtilityReportListener reads records from a configuration table to initialize various ReportListener values and behavior. You can choose to have UtilityReportListener perform these tasks when the class initializes, at the start of each report run, or both. You can also call its setConfiguration method explicitly at other times.

UtilityReportListener's run-time configuration features leverage the same configuration table format as the Report Output Application uses to register custom ReportListeners for different ListenerType values. For information about how the Report Output Application uses this table, see Report Output Application.

If you instantiate this class outside the Report Output Application, and if the configuration table does not appear to be available, it creates the appropriate table structure. If the class is built into a module (APP, DLL, EXE), it creates this table in the same directory as the module; otherwise, it will create the table in the same directory as the class library (VCX).

UtilityReportListener and its subclasses use the OBJTYPE field in the configuration table to determine which records belong to them, and to what use the records should be put. These classes reserve a range of values in the OBJTYPE field, set at 1000 to 1999.

Each subclass uses a single value in this range, determined by UtilityReportListener's configurationObjType property, to designate records in the table it wishes to use for configuration purposes. UtilityReportListener uses a constant value in REPORTLISTENER.H to set its own value.

Configuration tasks can set any property or invoke any method in your UtilityReportListener subclass. Records in the configuration table with the correct configurationObjType value set class properties or invoke class method code according to the following configuration table usage.

UtilityReportlistener ignores records with blank OBJNAME or OBJVALUE, and records marked DELETED(), whether they have the correct OBJTYPE value or not.

INSERT INTO (ALIAS()) VALUES ;
  (OUTPUTCLASS_OBJTYPE_CONFIG,0,
   'DoMessage','"Welcome to the demo run!",64',
   'Sample initialization/config method call')
DELETE NEXT 1
INSERT INTO (ALIAS()) VALUES ;
  (OUTPUTCLASS_OBJTYPE_CONFIG,0,
   'TargetFileName','"xxx"',
   'Sample initialization/config property')
DELETE NEXT 1

Remarks

You will probably not instantiate this class directly; you will instantiate one of the classes that derive from it, such as HtmlListener. These derived classes take advantage of UtilityReportListener's base features, which are file-handling and access to an FrxCursor object instance. They also expose UtilityReportListener's configuration table feature so you can customize their behavior at run time, in many cases, without needing to specify these changes in your code or deriving subclasses from them.

The following table lists public properties and methods added by this class to its parent class, _ReportListener.

See Also

Reference

Visual FoxPro Foundation Classes A-Z
ReportListener Base Foundation Class
ReportListener Object

Concepts

Guidelines for Using Visual FoxPro Foundation Classes